Chapter 371: Treasure All Over (Part 1)Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Everyone was listening carefully, especially Aini. He had tagged along because he wanted to learn through experience. He believed that he would definitely expand the scale of their hunting when he had a s.h.i.+p of his own in the future.
Although Irene had gotten first place the other day and p.i.s.sed Sika off, she was, after all, a disciple of a prominent clan and understood the proprieties. She had signed a magic contract with Saleen, so in business, they had to advance and retreat together. Through hunting alone, she would be able to recover her initial wealth. Plus, Saleen had promised to give her a s.h.i.+p so she would not need to follow after him and get it by begging. Eventually, she would be able to build her own house and breakaway from her clan.
The four major clans were taken care by the imperial household and hence they were able to live fairly well-off. Now that she had to rely on Saleen and Viscountess Lex, it was a gamble, but it would be worth the bet.
Lex had enough capital to open up a new territory ten thousand miles away from the nation. If she were to develop the territory, it would not be just a prefecture.
Holy Rock City was unable to fend for itself. When the conflict with the Holy See exploded the following year, there would be no room to maneuver the situation. Now that Chanake the Great had pa.s.sed away, the four major clans in Holy Rock City would lose half their family wealth. Even though the upper house would still be looking after them, everyone was aware that the upper house would be within Prince Safilos’ reach.
It was unknown how many people from the younger generations of the four major clans were out looking for opportunities like Aini and Irene. If the younger generation were to take advantage of their clans, then there was the possibility of them merging before their clans fell. This would enable them to either to recover their family statuses or to build a new clan. The four major clans might have been wealthier than any n.o.ble family, but their best ranks were only earls. It would be nearly impossible to go against Safilos.
In the past, the emperor had never raised the ranks of these four major clans in order to control them. As long as they were given feudal estates, they would not be distressed even if they were only marquises.
What made Irene and Aini remain vigilant was that Safilos had already planned to control Phoenix. The fact that he had dared to interfere with a duchy meant that he did not carry much hope towards the future of the clans. Even if he continued to support the four major clans, he would not be the same as Chanake the Great, who had allowed them to exploit more than twenty percent of the empire’s business.
Twenty percent of business was as profitable as things could get.
“Six hundred miles to the east is a strange hunting ground. I haven’t been there this season, but I presume that the amount of red phosphorous prawn during this season will be greater than it is summer. Within a thousand-mile radius, there will be at least a hundred schools of them, and each school will not contain less than a million of them.”
“That’s a lot!” Saleen had never thought that there would be billions of magic beasts in that hunting ground. He could not imagine that ever happening on land. However, it was understandable since there was a magic beast known as the unicorn white whale which hunted specifically for those kinds of magic beasts. The world always had balance. If there had not been such a huge amount, magic beasts like the unicorn white whale would have died of starvation.
“This is still the border of the oceanic ice block. We mainly need to avoid a few kinds of dangerous magic beasts. If you do not fight for food with these magic beasts, they will not attack your s.h.i.+p. Without this high-grade magic compa.s.s, even stronger wars.h.i.+ps would be sunk by the magic beasts.”
Saleen recalled the wars.h.i.+p from the Second Dynasty that was on the seabed, deep down in the sea. That wars.h.i.+p had been equipped with magic cannons but had still been sunk by magic beasts. Even if all of the thundercloud wood on that s.h.i.+p had been attacked with mid-level magic, the wars.h.i.+p would not have sunk.
“Do not provoke the unicorn white whales. There are more than hundred of them in this area of the sea. They do not need to cast any spells to sink a wars.h.i.+p of any scale. Besides, the most dangerous creature is the venus cuttlefish. This kind of magic beast can tear iron and steel, and they are very smart too. Plus, their size is enormous, so, their targets include whales, dolphins, and even large sharks.”
Bang!
Irene had yet to finish what she had to say when the pan’s turtle alchemical boat suddenly shook vigorously. The magic array on the table flashed and showed the projection carried by the eye of the dead.
At the bottom of the alchemy s.h.i.+p, there was an over ten-meter-long creature ramming into the s.h.i.+p. The impact it produced was immense. The head of the magic beast was not visible, and its entire body was round and covered with spikes.
“Don’t panic. It’s a black bile fish. It likes to ram into things and will leave after a while,” Irene stopped Saleen’s order to attack. “Do not cause the prey to bleed in this area of the sea if it is not necessary. It will attract the daggers.
Saleen had learned a great deal of new knowledge over the past few days. The dagger was a small beast, but could become bigger than its own body when it opened its mouth. This beast would eat anything and everything. It would even attack powerful beasts when it was triggered by fresh blood. They had sharp teeth, and their teeth could crush any sh.e.l.l-bearing beasts.
“The daggers are my target.” Saleen smiled. With Banchajanna and his peculiar method of attack, he would be most effective against the low-grade beasts. The only downfall was that the attack could not be carried out around powerful beasts, as it would provoke scary creatures like the unicorn white whale. Banchajanna’s attack would not have much of an effect, but it would draw unnecessary trouble.
Irene kept quiet because Saleen’s smile revealed too much information. Saleen was very confident, and this had been built upon his strong foundation. In addition to grade-9 magic beasts, Saleen was confident in fighting other targets as well.
This included the daggers, the terrifying marine magic beasts that were unable to eat wars.h.i.+ps themselves, but were capable of destroying things on the exterior of the wars.h.i.+ps such as the rudder and runner blades. Once these two things were lost, any powerful wars.h.i.+p would be stranded in oceanic ice block forever.
But the pan’s turtle alchemical boat could be driven by the spirit pool, and most spirits were not afraid of physical attacks. The s.h.i.+p had no runner blades and instead advanced with a partially hidden water jet. As for the rudder, it could be fully retracted into the s.h.i.+p.
This method of operation required a few hundred gold coins worth of magic nuclei, but it made the s.h.i.+p as solid as a rock. The pan’s turtle was a magic beast that could move around in the deep sea and the thickest part of its sh.e.l.l was more than three meters thick. Besides its magic, it did not possess any powerful attacks. Because of those characteristics, the s.h.i.+p had been gifted with such great defenses.
Most of the beasts would not dive into deep sea. Hence, they could only sink lower and slowly flee when they could not win against other beasts. At the border of the oceanic ice block, the water was more than two thousand meters deep. At some points, it was even more than four thousand meters deep. Most magic beasts could not live at such depths.
The alchemy s.h.i.+p could stand the high pressure. After it submerged, it could still travel at a speed of twenty miles per hour.
A confident man was always charming. Irene was lost in her thoughts for a while before saying, “If you are doing this for the daggers’ teeth, I suggest you don’t waste time. Their teeth can only be used to make daggers and arrowheads. There aren’t many of them, and they will not help much in producing weapons for an army. The spike on the head of the red phosphorous prawn is much more suitable.”
Irene then asked for a piece of paper and produced a simple sketch upon it.
“This is the red phosphorous prawn. Its body is about one meter long and it has a-one foot-long spike on its head that can rip through most armor. One spike can produce almost twenty arrowheads, and this kind of arrowhead will cause constant bleeding unless treated with magic or a divine spell. Normal bandages won’t help.”
“I’ve never heard it before.”
Saleen grew suspicious since Irene had been sailing on this sea route for a few years. If she had hunted a huge amount of red phosphorous prawns, the material should have been easily found in the market.
“I didn’t have any archmages with me so there wasn’t any spatial equipment. There wasn’t enough s.p.a.ce on the s.h.i.+p so we wouldn’t collect such materials. When we caught the red phosphorus prawns, I only wanted their magic nuclei,” Irene explained.
What a waste!
Saleen cheered in his heart. Who else owned as much spatial equipment as him? Only sorcerers could use high-grade spatial equipment. Although a grade-6 mage could also use spatial equipment, the s.p.a.ce was too small.
It was impossible for Irene to have such equipment. On the other hand, Saleen had the three kings and thirty-nine dimension stones. The capacity of these dimension stones was huge, and they were comparatively more stable than common spatial equipment.
“Don’t worry. I have enough s.p.a.ce for this hunt and we can bring the prey back. I will provide the materials collected to your two swordsmen for free, and will charge you only for the manpower.
“I have some dimensional devices,” Aini licked his lips and said.
“You can bring as much as you can, but Irene…”
“I don’t need them this time. Just don’t forget that you promised me to give me a s.h.i.+p.” Irene smiled at Saleen, but he felt oddly nervous. Her expression looks strange…
“Look, gold coins!” Irene suddenly shouted, pointing at the magic projection. On the projection by the eye of the dead was a school of creatures that looked like turtles, each roughly three meters long.
It was a beast that was solely depended on its sh.e.l.l’s defenses to eat smaller fish and prawns. Their main characteristic was that their sh.e.l.ls had defensive magic and their flesh had an irritating smell so no beasts liked to hunt them. There was a complicated picture on their backs which resembled a pile of gold coins, and they were s.h.i.+mmering in a golden color. Hence, the name “gold coins”.
“That’s a nice s.h.i.+eld!” Saleen called Banchajanna and he left the head of the s.h.i.+p dully. He could easily go through the death magic array that had been prepared for the bone spirits, and that saved Saleen’s expenditures on the teleportation portal.
Banchajanna swam upwards without showing his body, taking his skeletal form instead. He held a hammer in his right hand and chased after the school of gold coins. Each gold coin fainted with one knock to their back before being stored into the dimension stone by Banchajanna.
There was no challenge in this hunt. Banchajanna was upset as the gold coins were just grade-4 magic beasts and their attacks did not go beyond those of grade-2 magic beasts. It was embarra.s.sing to have sent him, a death king, to accomplish this task.
Irene was watching too. When she had sailed over here in her ma.s.sive s.h.i.+p in the past, it had taken a lot of effort to hunt down any sorts of magic beasts. It had also required a lot of money, either to buy magic medicine or special scrolls for the mage. With this skeleton, they could get more than a hundred gold coins per minute. It was as simple as bending down and picking them up on the road.
Saleen could not help but laugh. He did not want to put a burden on Banchajanna, but no one else on the s.h.i.+p could move freely in the deep sea aside from Nailisi. As for having Nailisi take the risk? Saleen would not allow such a thing.